Apostille & Attestation

Certificate attestation & apostille

What is the difference between certificate attestation & apostille?

Apostille – Certificate issued by a designated authority in a country where the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization of Foreign Public Documents, Apostille Convention, is in force. Apostille is a certificate which verifies and confirms the seal and signature of person who authenticates the document. There are designated authorities in every country to issue apostille certificates or legalization. Apostille are commonly issued for various documents related to adoption cases, for commercial documents, for educational documents and for court records, land records, school documents and patent applications.

Not all countries can issue apostille, but only the countries who had signed ‘Hague agreement for abolishing the need for public documents’. Once apostille is obtained, it is automatically considered ‘valid’ and ‘acceptable’ in all the Hague Convention countries.

The following are considered as public deeds within the meaning of that Hague Convention:

Any document issued by an authority or by an official covered by a jurisdiction of the State, including those coming from the public prosecutor, a clerk of the court or a bailiff.

Administrative documents such as deeds from the public records office.

Notarial deeds.

Official declarations such as references of registration, visas for a set date and certifications of signature, applied to private agreements.

Apostille in India – An authentication of the document confirming the originality by the External Affairs Dept. of the Central Govt., after obtaining the authentication from the concerned State Govt. departments as required. Countries which are a part of Hague Convention falls under Apostille.

Certificate Attestation – This is a declaration by a witness that an instrument has been executed in his or her presence according to the formalities required by law. It is not the same as an Acknowledgment, a statement by the maker of a document that verifies its authenticity.

Certificate Attestation in India – It is a three way process for Indian documents – from the state department, then from the central ministry department and finally from the concerned country’s embassy to which migration is sought.

Countries that are not a part of Hague Convention falls under Attestation. For more details please contact our experts or email us at info@attestation.in